chapter six

Two weeks later, Maddie was on her way to the library when she stopped to see Jarlen, Pachel, and Leran gathered together, looking bored. Suddenly Edward appeared, holding a book. "Here's the book you wanted."

Leran said, "You're supposed to add 'sir' or 'my lord' at the end."

Jarlen glanced at the book, then looked up and snapped, "I wanted the book on the Copper Isles, not on the Carthak Empire!"

Edward looked annoyed. "I heard you distinctly say you wanted a book on the Carthak Empire, Jarlen. If this is a case of taking hazing too far, I won't put up with it. Father and his friends didn't." He set down the book and walked away, accidentally bumping into Maddie.

The two fell down. Edward got up first and reached out a hand to help Maddie up. Jarlen and Leran snarled, but Pachel glanced around nervously. Finally he said, "I just remembered I promised to help Nick with his math homework." With that, he hurried away.

Leran looked annoyed with Pachel leaving, but then he turned his attention back to Edward and Maddie. "You're not going anywhere, Tameran," he snapped. "Not until you get the book Jarlen needs."

"Get the bloody book yourself," spat Edward. "It's one thing to ask a first year page to fetch a book, but it's another to claim that he brought the wrong one and send him back."

"You're supposed to obey when an older page askes you to do something," snarled Jarlen.

"Yes, if it was merely a simple matter of getting your homework or something. But not when you decide it's fun to send someone to get a book repeatedly. If you think I'm going to put up with that, you're very much mistaken."

Leran stepped forward. "You are going to get the books Jarlen and I want, though, Tameran."

"He already told you he wasn't!" exclaimed Maddie. "Didn't you hear Edward the first time?"

Leran glared at her. "Oh, now the girl's standing up for him. Tameran, how does it feel to have a girl fight your battles?"

"Maddie isn't fighting my battles," snapped Edward. "She just wants to help me." He glanced at her and said, "Maddie, you don't have to get involved. I can take care of myself." He turned his attention back to Jarlen and Leran.

Jarlen had moved next to Leran. "Well, one of you is going to get my book. If Tameran won't get it, Queenscove can. I think she'd make a good servant, even if she isn't much as a page."

"I'm not getting your book!" snapped Maddie. "Stop being so lazy and get the blasted thing yourself!" She decided not to go to the library after all and left the corridor, dragging Edward away by the arm.

Once they were in the pages' wing, Edward looked levelly at Maddie. "You really didn't have to step in," he said. "But thank you for dragging me away before it escalated into a fight." He then entered his room.

A few days later, Maddie and Sabine ran into Derran, Jarlen, and Leran attempting to take hazing too far with Kyle. However, Kyle wasn't putting up with it. "Edward informed me of what you tried to do with him!" he snapped. "I'm not stupid. I bet that whenI come back with the juice, one of you will probably trip me purposedly and then force me to clean the spill up. For your information, I'm not your servant. If you want juice, get it yourself or ask a servant to do it!"

"And if you do ask a servant, you'd better do it politely or they might decide to not obey you," cut in Sabine. Unlike most nobles, and like Maddie, Corrie, Jasson, Elric, and Lianne, she treated commoners nicely and did not think of them as lesser than nobles.

Kyle turned around and snapped, "Stay out of it, Hollyrose! It's none of your business." Maddie then remembered that Kyle's father was Baldrun of Disart, whom her father and Aunt Kel hadmentioned as a page who wasn't friends with them, but wasn'tfriends withJoren and his cronies, either.

Sabine blinked in suprise and Kyle quickly added, "No offense, Sabine." He turned back to Leran, Jarlen, and Derran.

The three other boys weren't interested in Kyle anymore, though. They had shifted their attention to Maddie and Sabine. "Well, well, what a pleasant surprise," commented Jarlen. "Fancy seeing you two here. Why don't you two be good and fetch us some juice?"

"I told you the other evening I wasn't fetching your blasted book, and I'm not about to get your d-d juice either!" snapped Maddie, losing her hold on her Yamani face and showing some of her father's temper.

"And if you think I'm going to fetch the three of you juice, you've got another idea coming!" added Sabine angrily. She was mostly an even-tempered person, but sometimes she could flare up like Rose.

Derran stepped forward. "You'd better do it!" he snapped. "Or else I'll make your life miserable and call the two of you whores and sl-"

"Shut up!" snapped Kyle, looking extremely furious. "You know perfectly well they aren't-the words you were using. And if you do call them that, you'll get into fights with them, Maddie's brother, and all their friends, plus any pages who don't think like you and don't like you. If your mother heard you using such language, she'd likely wash out your mouth with soap and water. And you'll have a hard time making their lives miserable. Stephan, my sponsor, says you did your best to make Corrinna's and Gwendline's lives miserable and drive them out, but failed."

"I didn't know you liked lady knights and girl pages, Disart," said Leran in suprise. "You've never hung around the girls before."

Kyle turned to him. "Maybe not, but I am friends with Edward, who's friendly with the girls and doesn't mind their being here. I don't care if there are girls or not. The five lady knights have proved themselves, so it's my opinion that if a girl wants to train for her shield, she can do so and it's none of my business. And I wasn't brought up to be mean and rude, even if I hated the idea of lady knights."

Derran nudged Leran and hissed, "Ignore Disart. He's not our problem. It's those girls who're a problem." Then in a louder voice, "My sisters would never dream of being so unladylike.They're content to stay inside and do embroidery and learn how to be proper ladies."

"My mother disagrees!" snapped Maddie. "She believes that a lady can learn how to fight and such. What about the Queen's Royal Ladies? They're ladylike, and they also know archery and can keep up with Aunt-I mean Queen Shinko when riding."

Pachel happened to walk by and stopped, looking at the situation. He finally said, "Derran, Nick wants to speak to you about your math homework. He's figured out the problem you couldn't do. Leran and Jarlen, our friend Warrel wants to see you two about something."

When the three didn't show any signs of moving, Pachel added, "They want to see you now. That's why they sent me to look for you." They sighed and grudgingly left. Once they were gone, Pachel turned to Maddie, Sabine, and Kyle. "You three better leave before Jarlen and Leran find out that Warrel wasn't looking for them and come back. I sent them away because I don't believe in taking hazing too far. And I had a conversation with Nick and he convinced me to leave the girls alone unless I wished to fail the Ordeal like Derran's uncle."

With that, he abruptly left. Maddie exchanged looks with Sabine, then turned to Kyle and said, "You're welcome to join our study group. We're meeting in the library and that's where we were going when we came across you and Derran and his friends."

Kyle considered for a few seconds, then answered, "I think I will take you up on the offer. Just let me get my books and things. I'll meet you two and your friends there."

Half a bell later, Kyle showed up with a black eye. Everyone in the study group gasped in surprise. "What happened?" asked Elric.

"I ran into Warrel, a friend of Darren's on my way here," responded Kyle. "He made some very rude remarks about girls. I lost my temper and we got into a brief fight. A few servants separated us and took us to Sir Robert. I have a week's punishment work and I'm confined to the palace for two weeks. Warrel's got the same punishment."

"Come here," said Jasson. He reached up a hand, now sparkling with emerald light, and touched Kyle's black eye. Kyle protested that only Sir Robert could authorize healings, but Jasson said, "Don't worry. I'm just taking away the pain. You'll still have the mark."

When he finished, Kyle sat down and everyone began or continued working.